


You've Left Me (Us) Behind

by MarigoldFlowers



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Child Neglect, Loneliness, One Shot, Pain, Sadness, Short, The Author Regrets Everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 18:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17751353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarigoldFlowers/pseuds/MarigoldFlowers
Summary: Boruto isn't lonely in the slightest. He has friends, his sister, his mother, his teachers--He has people who love him. People to surround him with praise and acceptance. If Naruto grew up without a father, than certainly he can, too.





	You've Left Me (Us) Behind

**Author's Note:**

> I found this at the bottom of my google drives. Needless to say, I was not happy with Boruto Next Gen's portrayal of Naruto and his fatherly instincts. 
> 
> Enjoy.

His father’s desk is empty. 

It always is.

He sits instead, at another office ten minutes away from home, where the walls are adorned with grand portraits of the six other Hokages before him.

Boruto traces a finger along the coarse wood, worn from years of use and the lack of it. Dust comes away as he lifts his hand. It crowds the drawers and pilfers the stacks of books that are stacked in the corner. Even his mother has given up on trying to clean it after the fourth year. Boruto pulls out a drawer with shaky hands. There’s a faded photo on the edge of the inside, glass cracked and rim crumbling away as if it were sand. It’s a picture of him and his sister, his mother in the back with a gentle smile on her face. It’s the only photo that his father had left behind when he became Hokage. 

Perhaps it’s just an accident that he did. 

Boruto tries to convince himself that. 

___

So many people speak of the Hokage’s grandeur, of his bravery and undiluted love for his family and the village. When Boruto hears of the praise the villagers give for his father, all he can do is turn away. Why bother with lies?

Boruto takes one look at the mirror and closes his eyes. He wonders how Sarada deals with it. The pain of growing into the very image of their fathers. He hates his blue eyes. 

He wishes that he looked more like his mother instead. 

___

Himawari is a bright spot of sunshine in Boruto’s life. She’s all smiles and laughter, bringing happiness into a house of three. She doesn’t mention their father’s absence. But Boruto can see the pain, hidden deep down beneath her childish exterior. She’s hurting, too. 

“She reminds me of your father,” His mother says. There’s a faraway look in her eyes, as if she’s elsewhere. As if she’s caught in a dream. 

Boruto looks up at her, too shocked to say anything back. There’s a curl of rage in his gut, so bitter and cold that he bites down hard on his lip to keep the cry of betrayal out. How can his sister be anything like his father? 

All adults lie. 

The mantra repeats in his head until night. 

All adults lie.

___

His father’s back is all that he will see, Boruto knows. The crowd around him is like a torrent of noise and screaming, all too confused at what their beloved Chunin exams had turned into. It’s an eternal reminder that Boruto can only be silent in the presence of his father, always ignored and left behind. His heart is a barren field of ash, nothing more than the anger that courses through his veins. 

There was a time when his father smiled as if were the easiest thing in the world. There was a time when he sang Boruto and Himawari lullabies to sleep and cradled them in his arms. There was a time when he looked at them as if they were the only love that he had for the world. Now he stands in front of Boruto, back turned and silent. 

Broken memories and broken glass, all that’s left of me is your forgotten love. 

Boruto wants to scream until his throat is hoarse, wants nothing more than to let the world hear his voice for once in his life. 

“Look at me,” He whispers instead, nothing more than a plea. 

His father does, slowly and carefully. 

There’s no remnant of that ferocious fire that once burned so deep and brightly, no hint of the man that everyone tries to convince Boruto that he is. His eyes are tired and weary, the once brilliant blue reduced to nothing more than a faded gray. 

And Boruto realizes that no amount of training, exceeding his own limits, or proving himself to others will gain his father’s attention back. The memory of shared happiness with his father is a constant ache in his bones, like a part of him that’s gone missing. Where is the ever-smiling Hokage full of dreams and hopes for the future? Where is the devoted father of two with a wife he always returns to? 

“Boruto, go home.” His father mutters. 

He’s ashamed of me, Boruto thinks. Disgusted. Pitied. Disappointed. 

Boruto doesn’t need his father’s hesitant hands to reach up to tug away his hitai-ate. He rips it off himself, and throws it at Naruto’s feet. 

All the birthdays spent in silence waiting for a man that would never come home. 

Days that Boruto would wait for a smile, a look of approval, hell, anything other than the tired glaze over his father’s eyes. 

His graduation day. Surrounded by his friend’s parents and their cloying smiles. Hushed whispers of congratulations. Boruto has been playing tug-a-war with the seat of the Hokage for a long time now, but he knows that it's a fight he'll never win. 

He just.. wants his father back, that's all. 

Being a Hokage killed Naruto. His own fervent dream eventually burned itself out a long time ago. 

He doesn’t need to be his son to know that this isn’t what his dad wants. 

Boruto turns to leave through the exit, but looks back one more time. “You left us behind the second you put on that stupid hat.” 

And he walks forward. Not daring to see his father’s expression. Tears slip down his face and drips from his chin. He’s tempted to curl in on himself, to hide, to run away. But he keeps his back as straight as an arrow, and walks forward. 

Perhaps somewhere, his mother is crying. Broken from her beautiful, lucid dream.


End file.
